315 Comments

I know the refs were bad again tonight, cant understand the no calls, the patches goal was off side they were gonna call it.

Im in Toronto and watching the leafs last night compared to this one is mind bogalling.

The rangers played there hacking style hockey and beat up the habs with cheap shots and of coarse the habs have no balls and hack them back to prove a point even if it costs them the 2 points, show some damn character!!!

I dont understand why the rangers did not hack the hell out of the leafs last night, are the leafs off limits to all other teams. Watching the leafs its seems like you cant rough them up, washington did not play them rough in the first round last year but they played rough in the second round.

The NHL is a bush league they kinda direct who wins and loses with there non steady calls to change the direction of games.
Its all business with a long season with too many teams and water down hockey.

Its hard to read posts of bashing chucky, I know he does not look sharp but can u blame him, look who is is playing with and how he is used on special teams.
The first line seems ok and we may have a center in Drouin, the rest of the lines are boring and pathetic, what do we have to loose to just put chucky at center with with hudon and lekonen there all gifted players, is it so Fcken hard to make this happen and let them make mistakes but you know what they may create some excitement and goals, what the hell do we have to loose, plex does not belong there dame-it!!!
Need balls not chicken shits, bring up Mccarron and just let him play with delarose and byron,

Plex on the fourth line with shaw and danault all 3 below average centers that cant score, the shut down line.

Thats all we have up front, play the kids we have nothing to loose let them learn and build.

The d im confused and lost, just cant understand what the f##ck jj is still doing there.

Lastly this french first policy, since the last referendum this franchise has not been the same, always crying the blues, and mister molson cant even lick the boots of the previous family members that always made sure this francise great!!!!

I’m not one to partake in all of the negativity. And it is still early days. But it’s hard to sit back an remain optimistic when deep in your heart this is, at best, an average team. A team stuck in “middle syndrome”. Not good enough to win. Not bad enough to build up from the draft. All of MB’s moves reek of Middle Syndrome management with no end in sight. Long term deals designed to bolster a middle team. There’s euphoria in winning. Optimism in tanking. Nothing but boredom and frustration in being a middle team. And sadly, that’s where I think they will sit for some time.

Am I the only one tired of the coddling of Chucky by some here,
He needs 2 players to set him up, the coach looked at him funny,
He’s on the 3rd line, Oh he’s on the 2nd pp unit, enough! Rise to the occasion already, maybe he just needs a new team

It’s not negativity it’s REALITY!! Team management are out of touch with today’s game. MB has given no indication he can oversee an NHL team and Claude looks lost behind the bench. I feel Claude is past his due date. However, he has a 5 year contract and we will have to wait until Alain Vignault is fired by the Rangers and we can try another re-tread. I’m afraid we are doomed for many more years.

Yes @25soonenough! I like the 4 centres you have there!! Fat chance it will ever happen though. They have destroyed Chucky’s confidence. Just let him play! Let Muller work with him on the other non offensive skills needed in a Centre throughout the season.

As for the Habs? This is going to be a looong, frustrating year of mediocrity, interspersed with moments of false hope.

Go with the flow. Don’t let it get You down.

I know it is a one in a thousand that Bergevin can off-load Price for Tavares, and place Our bet on Lundgren as Our future, yet by the time Christmas comes around I am hoping for the miracle beneath Our Christmas tree.

My concern is Habs having a season like the Blue Jays just had. There was lots of promise but they lost Encarcion settling for Batista and then had injuries and pitching problems at the beginning of their season and never recovered.
Habs lose Radulev settle for Hemsky, lose Markov and replace him with Drouin instead of Sergachev.
The Habs still have the same or worse scoring problems and are
HEALTHY!!!
Mete is a great surprize and Hudon or someone could show up?
Can some players catch fire please! There is still time.
I do not think many thought these first games won with the as yet cobbled together defense. Oh repent those of us dishing Markov and Emelin last year!

Habs got robbed by the refs. Usual screen outside of the crease. Goalie Lundqvist moves out of the crease, incidental contact with Pacioretty who had McDonough on his back, goal is good.
NHL is losing credibility due to the legalese of the rulebook. The rules need to be simplified greatly. Look at chess, it’s a great game because a child can understand the rules. Making the rules convoluted and complicated adds only frustration and unnecessary seriousness to a frivolous sport.

The lot of the things. Something is going to go our way when it counts. Maybe end of season game, maybe playoffs. MB?! Not an election, run him out of town after 40. November and january totals is where we see how a team works before wreaking ball comes through. I like my Danault, leks, 92, 11, 6, Alzner, 67 and 65. These guys played like there is 81 chances, 80, to win. 27 is about to discover the problem, heself as enemy. Wins and boom! Coaching is problem? Let’s face it, we love our players to go off map and succeed. Talent. Bloody team sports. Takes a bunch
…

Boy. Alex Galchenyuk looks worse every game out. Don’t know what his problem is but he was a floater again tonite. Forget trading him for anything more than a bag of hockey sticks the way he’s playing. In fact that’s probably the big reason why they haven’t unloaded him yet for Matt Duschene. If you were Colorado would you? Maybe…after drinking a case of beer of course. Its going to be a long season in Montreal. Next up Chicago. Beat the drums, pass the torches around and mail the 2 points on Tuesday. They’re awful.

If he could shoot where, as a viewer, I imagine he scores, maybe he could pass to team mate where they could score. Coaching seems super hard to me now, or always. Screw CJ, never liked him. Even if he brings us a cup!

The king out plays Price again ! Not saying that it was Prices fault but lets stop calling him the worlds best goal tender until he becomes one . Bergivin is going to make a panic move that’s really going to hurt this team ! Then he will be fired at seasons end! They need a player that can play the roll the Prust played , this team has been way to soft . Look what Reeves is doing for Pitsburgh , nobody will be giving it to Crosby this year . They also need a defenceman that can skate with the puck (PK like ). This is going to be a very long season . What a MESS you have made Bergivin . GO PREDS GO ! 76. 76. .76

Six months after they barely scored in playoffs against Rangers they get shut out by same team.

How was it possible for MB to see that lack of scoring and say ‘i know how I’ll fix this! I’ll rebuild my 4th ranked defence from last season. I’ll give up all my puck moving defensemen and bring in slower and older guys. Surely we will score more!. Who needs forwards who can score?!? I’ll show em!’

Not a good team, downward trend. Time to go Bergie…..you’ve rid us of all talent we had on the back end, emptied the cupboard, perpetuated a piss poor farm system and a sub par talent evaluation department, so great 6 year plan. I guess people keep buying this $13 Molson Ex and the coach and GM have French last names so it’s all good. Pathetic.

Every other team is building with fast, young players. We have an old defense, comprised of disgards. No stars anywhere. We have managed to ruin Galchenyuk.
Bergevin is stupid. You sign Striet, who the Pens would not play in the playoffs despite missing Letang and at times Daley. What the..!!!
Hopeless.

Not only that, expect some of the top coaches to hail from the USA moving forward. And given the politics this organization has chosen to engage in, the Habs ain’t gonna get a piece of that action. After all, the odds of an American coach speaking French are long. They’re better off dropping this requirement and just asking candidates if they’re willing to learn French (which is a fair request). You instantly just expanded your candidate options. Think of it, would this organization ever seriously entertain the likes of Trotz, Ruff, Babcock or Lamouriello? Let’s not kid ourselves. Other than that, this kind of insularity only hastens the Peter Principle which, in turn, results in mediocrity. I’m sure this could be expressed mathematically.

This was at least a competitive game. Look if you expected the Habs to go out and suddenly dominate teams with a 1st line center whose never played it before in the NHL and a 5’9″ 19 year old on the 1st pairing…then you’re drinking too much Kool-Aid. For example, Drouin missed the coverage on the 2nd goal. This was going to happen given his experience. People have to temper their expectations.

Anyway what a difference taking out a slow Dman for a fast one. Davidson played like he did in Game 6 in the playoffs. Good sign. They just can’t covert their scoring chances. They put Chucky with Max and JD at the end which was another good sign. Hopefully he will try it in the future because playing Chucky with players who don’t have creativity won’t help his game.

What is horrible, and inexcusable, is our sorry-looking gathering of pudlingtons at the back.

As mentioned below, I just can’t get enough of Benn skating up to the blueline, then rattling a pass into the feet of a forward standing stationary at centre.

In a game clearly moving even more toward speed and movement – necessitating both from your defence corps – the natty turd-flinging blind squirrel has doubled down on scoreless third-pairing dudes at the back.

I love the kid Mete, but the only reason he’s getting a shot as a little guy at age 19 is because someone whispered in MB’s ear that you just might want a puckhandler on D.

MB traded a Norris-winning puck-mover for an older, throwback guy (and didn’t at least get Girard thrown in). Markov was older than dirt and slower than molasses, but he was smart and could move the puck. MB replaced him with the even older, even slower Streit.

To replace our best forward, Radulov – one who could make things happen on his own, without as much help from the D – MB had to deal the best puck-moving prospect we had. So even if it’s a wash up front, we still lose at the back. Smooth.

Instead of pursuing a kid like Shea Theodore, MB triples down on the scoreless Alzner.

It’s a soff team with 10 guys aged 30-plus and a definite gap between where it is now and when guys like Mete and Poehling, etc., are really going to be able to help.

Ah well. It’s the same hamster wheel over and over anyway. Bring back Patty.

My favorite pre-season game was the one against FLA. They had FOUR puck-movers in that line-up: Petry, Mete, Jerabek and Davidson. They played against FLA’s best players and beat them with speed easily. They need to go all-in on a speed team. Yes they will get beat-up but it is the only chance they have to produce offensively 5v5.

I really believe the biggest problem in this organization is MB’s ego. He always seems like he has to be the story. He’s made so many bizarre moves and has only managed to make the team average at best. This lineup is bereft of creativity and the backend is truly terrible – thanks to a GM who doesn’t know how to evaluate talent – but he sure knows how to pick a matching tie. I just can’t be bothered to watch – a boring team that can’t score that has to rely on the goalie every night. How did we get here?

MT has had much better Starts to the years than many other coaches before him and has maintained a better winning record. I am not saying i want him back because eventually he lost the room. But he Truely had his players better prepared and his teams gelled a lot better. You gotta give him credit.

PLEASE don’t say that MT was anything but the worst coach in HABS history! He ruined young players , he drove PK out of town ! At least this year we have CJ playing some of the young guys . It’s the veterans on this team that have to step it up . Bergivin also has to make this team younger with his trades and free agents , not older and slower ! Management SUCKS . GO. PREDS GO 76. 76. 76.

As the old saying goes “You can’t win if you can’t score…and you can’t score if the ref denies the goal.”

But all jokes aside if you take off your habs love goggles, you can see just one proven goal scorer on team. If he doesn’t score, the others can’t pick up the slack, as evidence has repeatedly told us.

Until the day we start building from around a centerman instead of a goalie and defense, you have a hard time winning in this league. The Leafs have figured it out. The Pens and Blackhawks have figured this out for the past decade. Why can’t the Habs figure this out. They need to unload anybody for that true #1 center you can build around. And I’m sorry folks, but Drouin is not the answer. Nor Galchenyuk. Nor Pacioretty. Nor Carey Price.

As much as I love Carey Price, he needs to go somewhere else if he wants to win a Stanley Cup. He doomed himself when he signed that contract because now the Habs simply can’t afford that true #1 franchise center and he’s still good enough all by himself to push the Habs into a playoff spot which guarantees the Habs a zero percent chance of not drafting a franchise center.

I agree, especially with your last paragraph. Price’s contract has pretty much doomed the team to another decade of mediocrity. Another decade of making the playoffs most years, drafting middle of the pack, and never having a chance to acquire the game-changing players we need. We’ll remain a team that is too good to tank, but can never hope to become good enough to contend.

Bergys wants players that hate to lose ….get f n players that love to win you third pairing d head …. I noticed before the habs were looking like red army team now it looking more like the BC boys .. just get talent you fool

After a rough game last night it was nice to see a real bounce back performance. Goaltending out, they rolled 4 lines and didn’t allow a ton of chances. There were a couple weird calls by the refs and that is normal. If they keep playing this way, the Rangers will be fine.
As for the Habs, they didn’t do so well.

Just want to say that I did not watch most of this game – checking in now and then, leaving a pithy comment and then turning to another channel. I hope that this behavior is not lost on the advertisers who have had no opportunity to dazzle me with their product.

Chicago put up a 10 spot on the Stanley Cup champs and Toronto scores between 5-8 goals a night.
Should be an interesting week.
By the time it’s over, MB will start growing his Rip van Winkle beard again.

Rangers put on a defensive clinic. We needed the first goal. Dejavu from the playoffs.
Refs didn’t help.
Second goal was a goal. High sticks missed on shaw and pacman.
Oh well I wanted a 500 road trip and didn’t get it.
Need an upset win vs the hawks now. We can do it.
Effort is there which will pay dividends as we move forward.

I’d say the best thing to do is to get rid of Bergevin, trade Price, Pacioretty, and Weber for what you can get for them, and drop to the bottom for a few years to rebuild. However, the Habs management group is so pathetic they would probably find a way to ruin even a generational player like McDavid. From top to bottom, this organization has a rot running through it.

Petty was never good. Only on the team cause MB made a mistake trading for him and paid 1 mil a year more for him than anyone else would have given. Classic Billy Beane observation: looks like he should be good but isn’t.

The overwhelming amount of mistakes this franchise has made since the events that caused the team to trade away Roy is just astonishing. They allowed a tempestuous under-skilled coach (Tremblay) to put himself above the team and then compounded the problem by allowing clueless Houle and soulless Corey to trade Roy for a bunch of pucks. Since then they have had nothing but a revolving door of useless managers, cast off and retread coaches and disassociated owners.

The team’s front and back office promote a French language bias above getting the best person for the position. They have had very little player development success and have given away assets for nothing in return. It also appears that the franchise can no longer attract real talent. Does it go any lower than being on a players’ list of no-trade destinations.

As a life long Habs fan who has been so disappointed with the last quarter century of futility I feel that I no longer have the ability to follow this franchise with any amount of optimism. They will now have to not just win games but also prove to me that they are a franchise worth my effort.